Mark Coure with members of the Oatley 101 Society of Arts at the St George Community Awards night in November last year, Geraldine Taylor, Shirley Hagarty, Robyn Riley and Freda Surgenor.

The call has gone out for the brightest local creative local talent to nominate now for the 2018 NSW Creative Achievement Awards.

Nominations are now open until Friday March 16 for local creative businesses and individuals to nominate for NSW’s Creative Achievement Awards.

Oatley MP Mark Coure urged local people to nominate.

“The creative industries range from visual and performing arts including dance, music and theatre to digital and traditional media including film, television, radio, web design, publishing and advertising, and even architecture,” Mr Coure said.

“Our region is home to much creative talent so I would like to see a strong field of local nominations contesting the honours in these prestigious annual awards.”

There are three award categories for those bringing recognition to our creative industries – the NSW Creative Laureate, the NSW Emerging Creative Talent Award, and for the first time a $3,000 NSW Young Creative Award for those up to 25 years.

“This is a great opportunity for local companies to be recognised for their creative contributions to Australia and overseas so I encourage them to apply now,” Mr Coure said.

“The NSW Creative Achievement Award winners will be announced in June at the Museum of Contemporary Art during Vivid Sydney 2018.”

Minister for Trade and Industry Niall Blair said the Awards will reward outstanding achievements that raise the global profile of NSW creative industries.

“We want a good cross section of talent to nominate from metropolitan and regional areas to show the diversity of our creative industries which employ around 212,600 people and over 42 per cent of Australia’s creative workforce,” he said.

The NSW Creative Laureate recognises a candidate that has made a significant contribution to increasing our industry’s global profile with the winner to be an ambassador for the year.

The NSW Emerging Creative Talent Award offers a $15,000 prize and recognises an individual, team or organisation that has shown originality and innovation while contributing to raising the global profile of NSW creative industries.

Nominations can be made until Friday 16 March at http://nswciawards.com.au